>> Hello and thanks for joining us on Chicago Brandis Friedman.

Here's what we're looking at.

We unpack the Supreme Court's decision activists say has gutted the Voting Rights Act and what it could mean for future elections.

Back to build.

>> Too deeply connected like family.

>> And a documentary airing on W T Tw explores Filipino culture and cuisine with Chicago.

Restaurateur really DEC.

First off tonight, workers at Brookfield Zoo hit the picket line this morning walking out after contract negotiations with management broke down last week.

The strike includes grounds custodial and facilities, employees.

But animal care professionals are currently on the job.

According to a statement from the zoo, Teamsters local 7 to 7, which represents the more than 200 workers rejected a deal.

But they say offered raises below 4%.

And also eliminated and existing 100% employer paid health care benefit.

But management disputed that claim.

The zoo remains open for guests.

Officials say the care and well-being of animals remains their highest priority and they remain focused on reaching a contract that, quote, supports employees while protecting the zoo's long-term sustainability.

Labor groups and some elected officials are pushing for an increase in the federal minimum wage.

The rate has sat stagnant at $7.25 an hour since 2009 advocates are pushing to bump it up to $25 an hour at an event today.

The National Education Association pointed out how that impacts many school workers.

>> From clerical workers, bus drivers, the food service workers to custodial and maintenance workers and para educators.

But often earn wages that barely scraped the 4th.

>> The Z S P's of the first faces students see in the morning and the last one that they see before they go home.

Yet many of them cannot afford to support their own families.

One 3rd of the S P's earned $25,000 a year or less.

10% of them rely on food assistance.

>> Democratic congressmembers Delia Ramirez into a Garcia of Illinois introduced to the living wage for All Act last week, which calls for that increase many states, including Illinois, currently have a minimum wage above the federal level.

Critics of increasing the minimum wage say it could hurt business and result in higher prices for consumers.

If you're a business owner, a new state facility may come in handy.

Officials say the new Business Services Center located downtown will streamline services, improve accessibility and save taxpayer dollars.

Some of the services being provided at the downtown facility include filing articles of incorporation for corporations and LLCs, filing trademarks, getting assistance with certificates of good standing and written statements and processing documents for international use.

And the fast lane DMV kiosk allows people to renew their driver's licenses and state ID's and purchase vehicle registration stickers with on site printing of temporary documents.

Secretary of state Alexi Giannoulias says the move eliminates nearly $650,000 in ongoing lease costs by consolidating operations into a state owned building.

The Supreme Court's decision to weaken the Voting Rights Act explained right after this.

>> Chicago tonight is made possible in part why the Alexandra and John Nichols family.

The Pope Brothers Foundation.

And the support of these donors.

>> I dissent then from this latest chapter in the majorities now completed demolition of the Voting Rights Act, that Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan in her dissent of a 6 to 3 ruling last week in Louisiana versus Callaway.

The ruling determined that Louisiana's congressional maps, which include 2 majority minority districts designed to give minority voters a chance to elect their preferred representatives are unconstitutional.

The decision is expected to have long-lasting ramifications.

That could be felt as soon as the 2026 midterms with states racing to reach redraw their maps before November.

Joining us to break down the ruling are Ryans Holley executive director of Change, Illinois, a nonprofit that advocates for fair legislative maps in Illinois.

Michael King, a law professor at Northwestern University and Karen Freeman, Wilson, president, CEO of the Chicago Urban League.

Welcome back.

Thanks to all of you for joining us.

Michael King, I want to start with you, please.

What was it that the judges were being asked to consider in this case?

Break it down for us.

Please.

>> Yes, technically speaking here, Louisiana was ordered by a lower court, too.

Draw second majority minority District under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which it basically guarantees minority representation under certain conditions that it seems that minorities are being denied their kind of fair share of representation.

That was appealed up to the Supreme Court in what the state ended up arguing was that the intentional drawing of the second district that it was being asked to do one of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional, that it unconstitutionally considering race by the state that defied kind of voting Rights Act practice for 50 years.

But we have a different court that's ready to consider this sort of change.

And they declared that consideration of race in the intentional drawing of this majority minority district unconstitutional.

This has huge ramifications for the way that politics are conducted in the way that we think about voting rights.

>> Karen, from Wilson, what was your reaction to the court's ruling?

Well, the ruling was really a good.

>> Punch brandis further evidence that over the last 13 years, this Supreme Court has been intent on not only gutting the Voting Rights Act, but eliminating the Voting Rights Act.

And this.

In many respects was the final nail in the coffin.

>> Brian Todd Lee, the Republican governors of both Alabama and Tennessee.

They have called for special legislative sessions to potentially adjust their congressional maps ahead of the midterms.

We just heard Michael King say it that there could be long-lasting ramifications.

What could the effects of this ruling be on the 2026 elections?

Yeah, there's a few states, as you said are already considering redrawing the maps because these legal tolls that voters had.

>> To ensure their representation are gone and what we're likely to see is just lot more partisan gerrymandering because voters don't have those tools to fight back 2026.

Some states are going to be constrained because they already have primary Pastore.

They're too far into petition process.

But especially for 2028 and beyond, it's just going to be wide open for states to gerrymander like we haven't seen previously.

>> I'm going see you Great.

Go ahead, Karen.

No, I was just going to say in Louisiana, they literally canceled or postponed an election so that they could change the It's sort of like changing the rules in the middle again.

But this isn't a game.

That's important part.

So it's all it's already happening is what you're saying.

Michael, paying the Roberts court has weakened the Voting Rights Act twice before once in 2013 again in 2021.

>> Remind us of those rulings, please.

>> Yeah, this is really the 3rd act in a larger kind of deconstruction of voting rights by this court.

The 2013 decision was Shelby County.

And that got rid of the really important part of the Voting Rights Act section 5 that basically forced covered jurisdictions to prove before it could implement any sort of change their election rules that they were not discriminating either in terms of a factor or intent that was wiped away.

And what that meant was a lot more pressure fell on the remaining provision in the Voting Rights Act section to Section 2 is a little different.

It's not a preclearance provision that requires plaintiffs to come forward and see what after an election changes been made.

If general even apply to redistricting.

So in a decision a few years ago, Brundage.

Basically the court had to review how to apply section 2 to election rules, changes that previously had fallen under Section 5 before Shelby County.

A lot of conservatives had argued that we don't need Section 5 because we have section bring a bench that section 2 application to these election rule changes was made much more difficult.

And really there hasn't been a successful section to see sense.

So those were 2 elements that came in.

And this is the 3rd part which basically makes it almost impossible to bring a successful section to see in redistricting, which is where Section 2 had had a lot of force ensuring some minority representation, particularly in the south.

But but other than the south as well.

And this now requires proof of intentional discrimination, which is very hard to prove in litigation.

And you have to show not only that minority voters are being hurt, not just in terms of the a fact, but because of race as opposed to party to the degree that.

You have a Republican government that is intent on advancing Republican that hurting Democrats, even if they target black voters say who vote Democratic.

That seems according to the court.

Okay.

Because that's kind of partisan discrimination and the court in.

And yet another decision had decided the Constitution has no restrictions on partisan gerrymandering.

So when you combine all of those things, you're likely to see partisan gerrymandering, just go crazy.

>> So I want to get into one of the things that you mentioned there, Michael, with Karen.

Karen, the court ruled, as we just heard that the state legislatures are allowed to redraw maps in pursuit of political ends, right?

That is so allowing Republicans to target minority populations as Democrats rather than targeting them as black voters, Hispanics.

So on, what's your reaction to them?

Leaving that open?

Well, I think it just >> creates an opportunity.

>> For people to change maps.

>> To disenfranchise voters to essentially.

Use the the partisan political issue a pretext for really discriminating racially.

And while you can't prove intent, we always see the impact.

And so the impact will be there without any protection against it because people will be able to use the pretext.

We're not just focused on race.

We're really focused on political party and we just want this to be a Republican or super majority Republican state.

And so next door to in Indiana.

My home state, there is peril.

seen too.

Districts that are represented by Democrats that have a significant black population essentially having those people that vote, Democrat, disenfranchised in the interest of advancing a did gender.

>> So, Ryan, some advocates are urging Democrat led states then to respond in kind by redrawing districts to favor Democrats.

We've already seen California and Virginia revisit their redistricting moves after Texas.

And you've already mentioned concerned about this sort of setting off redistricting, arms race, sort what could the impact be for for voters?

Will we see what Karen Freeman Wilson just referenced, fewer majority minority districts?

Yeah, I think that's absolutely a reality we could be facing.

>> I think for a lot of state.

So we have to remember who is losing out here and it's boaters and for states like Illinois, there are tools available to us to protect Illinois voters.

There's legislation in the state House credit, Illinois Voting Rights Act that would ensure a lot of these protections for vote dilution voter suppression.

And I don't want us to lose sight either that this is also going to affect state maps.

It's going to affect local maps.

And so it's really important for state like Illinois to lead the way on protecting voting rights by ensuring our state passes legislation that gives us protections to voters.

And we don't see similar things happening, Illinois, with them.

Bernard, but both leash and voter suppression.

>> Be and since you mentioned Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.

He has entertained redistricting in the past talks about amending the state constitution to bolster the protections of the vra.

You mentioned that should.

Illinois.

You mentioned Illinois Voting Rights Act.

Should Illinois be passing this house other states responding?

Yeah, absolutely.

I think it's something that is that within the power of the Illinois state legislature to pass and we should do that immediately.

We should be example for other states.

>> On how we can ensure voters are protected with the last of these federal safeguards.

it's it's not going to be the end, all be all to to fix a problem nationally.

But we got to remember, we have to start somewhere in a state like Illinois can lead the way here, Karen from Wilson.

But Roberts court has long held that policies should not consider race whether it is to help or hurt.

>> Minority populations that sort of race blind argument.

>> What did you make of that policy is just should stop discriminating on the basis of race period.

I think it's fictional.

>> And when you look at the fact that we have not existed in a color-blind society for 400 years to say that today we're going to start being color blind.

>> Miss placed effort to negate history.

And you just cannot do that.

You can do it.

Obviously, the court hands, but mythical.

>> Michael Caine, we've got about 30 seconds left.

You know, the Roberts court has you know that we mentioned made some decisions before.

Has this case fit into the broader pattern of the court's approach to race, conscious loss?

>> I think it's of a piece with all the other decisions.

It's attempt to get law out of regulating race discrimination in all different kinds of ways.

And so I think to the degree that you're worried about discrimination in voting and in politics are worried about racial representation getting wiped out this case sort of completes a kind of retreat by the court of law from that space.

>> Okay.

That's what we'll have to leave it More to come on this.

I'm not sure.

Michael Caine, Karen Freeman, Wilson, Ali, thanks to the 3 of you for joining us.

I appreciate it.

Thanks so much.

Thank you so much.

Brandis.

Up next, serving up Filipino cuisine and culture with Chicago restaurateur Billy DEC.

>> Reflecting the people and perspectives that make up our communities.

This story is part of Chicago tonight.

Black voices.

>> A documentary airing on W T Tw is serving up Filipino cuisine as the main course.

>> From back to Philippines.

Too deeply care act like family.

Really reconnect with the culture.

This is unbelievable.

Heritage.

with that, I grew >> To discover food routes follows restaurants who are believes act as he returns to the Philippines to reunite with family and learn some new dishes along the way.

And joining us now is Billy DEC restaurants who are actor, former adviser to President Obama's Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Just to name a few of the literal hats that you Welcome the is so good to be back.

So what made you want to document this journey?

And in this way?

Yeah, the documentary Well, originally I was just document it so that when I was going back to the islands of the Philippines to learn the rescues, my ancestors finding family and all these remote villages and mountains and beachside towns.

>> I wasn't consumed with the process of reading things down.

I just want to be president because the whole reason I sort of left out, I didn't learn the recipes that are never written down because I wasn't president was in America.

You know, trying to hustle and, you know, be everything that America tells you need to be to be successful.

But going back to the Philippines, you know, documenting it just going from food to family to life.

All these things start unwind and we got home.

We noticed that the footage was unlike anything we have our expected in an Oscar-winning producer friend Graham, Emmy-winning Filipina director who knew the culture as well.

Saw the footage Apple, the after Black Eyed Peas started putting music to it and they made this magic come about Philippine Filipino food is having a moment, More restaurants are opening in thinking about Boonies shout-out Qasem a has a James Beard Award.

2 Michelin stars >> what do you think is driving all of this interest?

Well, I think genre food is extremely exciting.

It's always evolving.

It's totally innovative.

>> Part of its unique characteristics is that it's been, you know, had influences from all around the world.

And it's so bright and beautiful and delicious and unique.

But at the same time, it's just been this genre food that hasn't really been explored.

And I think with the explosion of chef TV and food adventurers and all these content creators that have made their way around the world.

These beautiful 7,641 Islands of the Philippines, they started to really create intrigue and excitement.

Demand an attraction to this.

This type of food in this.

This really beautiful part of the world in the documentary.

You said that as a kid you experienced bullying bullying from other kids making fun of the Filipino food that you would bring Shannon School for lunch.

>> You were jealous as a kid of you know what other kids what made you know, and once you grew up fall back in love with Filipino food.

Yeah, I mean, no one wanted to trade with you know, they had like 100 sandwiches, smushed, you know, like old school.

And I had like these.

>> You know, fish and vinegar and things that people freak out about now in love.

You know, you grow up loving what your grandma.

My Lola raised me on in the house.

And once you hit middle school and high school, you begin to push way that because people making feel uncomfortable.

I think once I left for college and went on to be an adult and especially law school and when a way and lost by little I I really how to avoid something was wrong in missing.

And that's when we started play around with Sunday, which is 18 years old.

Now we had to be very careful with the introduction of Filipino food back in the day because nobody really was interested in it.

So as a Southeast, Asian elevated and it played with all these different countries around the region, including Filipino food.

So, yeah, let's talk about Filipino food just a little bit.

And what some of the, you know, the staples and flavors are you know, Filipinos who are familiar with that food.

Yeah.

The stuff they call home.

I like to say it's very much a foundation of Southeast Asian flavors and feels that you're used to.

But then you get to integrate some things, especially from Spain and China are the big ones for me.

But there's, you know, Japan, Malaysia, India, us, you name it.

There's so many different influences I think that there's a really wonderful mix of mommy, this burst of of real savory flavor that people aren't used to combine with these fresh bright citrus and fruits and vegetables to come from the Philippines.

But yeah, it's just a mix like another.

And again, it evolves.

And that is what's great about it.

So it always is something new.

There's a moment in a film where you make lumpia with with your low lower brand on because it sounds like that is applied to both grandmothers and granddaughters.

>> granddaughter, great What did that mean to you to be able to do that with her?

>> It was first of like for being transported, almost spirits, Lee to be with my little of light mist so much that she passed away.

This was her sister and the last remaining elder of that generation.

I really felt like an incredible connectivity with her.

I was really like flash backing on cooking or see Milo Cook, but also learning that there is a way in which she did it different from everyone that really unveiled a family story and a story about Filipinos and Pierce, perseverance and all these sort of things.

She had grown up in another home and I would have never known that.

Lets someone told me that.

But that's what these journeys due back in time.

When you really deep dive on what your ancestors did to come together and love and take care of other.

A nurse, shocking stories.

You also get, you know, very personal in the film you're sharing, you know, the tragedy of the deaths of your father, your brother, both of whom struggled with mental illness and of course, the deaths of your other Lola's.

>> Was making this film sort of therapeutic for you as well total.

Hey, I think coming up in Chicago, I had a lot of things that I was hiding because it seemed as if I would not be able to excel in this world right around.

If I didn't act like I had it together and then I was projecting sort a person that had control of their situation and I really you know, went out there with the same way in which I do cooking shows and segments said local national shows and it was me the character that I built with the strong walls.

But when I was engaging with these elders through story, something happened.

Something broke down.

And I think that's when you know, these Oscar Emmy, Grammy winning producer is like what's that?

We need to explore that and it was essentially me having to tell the truth about my real challenges and it was super therapeutic.

I feel so blessed to have this out So surprise.

We did film fest routes across the country in these theaters were filled with people that are completely diverse.

Nothing like me.

And they all were like reacting emotionally like laughing, crying, starving all the things and it's because it's a human story.

I think a lot of people go through, you know, whether it's mental illness, whether it's being poor being challenged in certain ways teams that kind of went through in and out of the story.

It just shows that we can persevere.

We can keep going, you know, really resonate with a lot of people.

So it made you feel good.

the release that you're talking about was their.

Yeah, there's a lot of definitely beautiful moments in the film.

There's another one later on.

I will tell people about they have to go and watch on the blood.

It does blood.

the looks Definitely made me hungry.

Billy Dec, congrats on the film.

Thank you so much for joining Thank you so This is great.

You bet.

>> And food routes airs here on W T Tw at 09:00PM on Monday.

May 11th.

And we're back right after this.

And that's our show for this Monday night.

It's starting to warm up outside and with the nice weather comes hundreds of festivals.

Check out our website for details on events happening across Chicago and the suburbs from parades and concerts to food, fests and art shows it's all at W T Tw dot com slash festivals and join us tomorrow night at 5, 30 10 now for all of us here at Chicago Brandis Friedman, thank you for watching.

Stay healthy and safe and have a good night.

>> caption reads cost by Robert a cliff and Clifford law Chicago, personal injury